Food Court

Experience new dishes made with a cornucopia of vegetables — artichokes and arugula to wild mushrooms and zucchini — during Bethlehem's first VegFest Foods Week Sunday through Sept. 10. Ten Bethlehem restaurants and one in Trexlertown are offering select, fixed-price, vegetarian meals. In addition, the Honey Underground in Hereford, Balasia's weekend supper club, will participate on Sept. 9 and 10. The event offers a preview of the vegetarian dishes the restaurants will serve at the food court of the first-ever Bethlehem VegFest noon-5 p.m. Sept.

The seventh annual Small Town USA Carnival in North Catasauqua will be held June 12-15. WE SING! Community Chorus will be at the carnival, offering face painting and tattoos as a fundraiser for the group, according to North Catasauqua's website. Volunteers are needed to help manage the tent. Event hours are 6-10 p.m. and four-day ride wristbands are available at the borough hall for $35. The wristbands include access to a food court, food, rides, games, raffles and live music, the release said.

Northampton Community College students christened the school's new food court yesterday by throwing pies at the wall. And they didn't get in trouble. In fact, college President Robert J. Kopecek joined them. His aim, however, wasn't as good as the students' as he missed a picture of himself that had been tacked on a sheet as a target. The pie-throwing competition was part of a weeklong celebration in the food court, which replaces a cafeteria built in 1972 when fewer than 5,000 students attended the community college compared to more than 20,000 today.

Whether you're a vegetarian, vegan or just looking for some fun with a focus on good health, check out Bethlehem's second annual VegFest. The free street festival will bring together natural food providers, speakers, chefs, educational exhibits, music and theater around the South Bethlehem greenway 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. Nestled between Adam and Taylor streets and Mechanic and Fourth streets will be a tent for speakers, two music stages, a farmers market, a food court featuring 26 local vendors, eARTh corner with arts and crafts, a health center and animal haven with rescue groups and pet products.

By Ashley Kosciolek Special to The Morning Call - Freelance | April 1, 2008

The restaurant and gas station at the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Hickory Run service plaza will be razed and replaced with a food court and fuel station under one roof, officials said. HMS Host Corp. of Bethesda, Md., which controls most of the Turnpike service plazas, will take over the 85-acre site as part of a 30-year contract, Turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo said. The plaza is on the Northeast Extension, between the Mahoning Valley and Pocono interchanges. The state Turnpike Commission will own the property, but HMS will build, operate and manage it, DeFebo said.

Paul Andre of Pleasant Valley canes a chair at the Penn Foundation annual spring festival in Sellersville. The festival offered more than 50 craft stalls, a food court, horse and carriage rides, a petting zoo, face painting and a flea market as the foundation hoped to raise $12,000 for services for psychiatric patients.

Marie Rentschler of Reading, above, slices onions at Little Richard's Food Court on Monday in preparation for the Allentown Fair's opening, which is today. Little Richard's is donating all proceeds from the fair to aid with relief for victims of Hurricane Charley. Right, a pile of stuffed animals awaits distribution along the midway.

Robyn Marks stocks a booth Monday in preparation for the Allentown Fair, which opens today. At left, Clint Yoder of Bechtelsville carries onions to Little Richard's Food Court. All the proceeds earned by Little Richard's will be donated to relief for victims of Hurricane Charley.

Brad Bowman of Bowmanstown installs roof shingles on a strip mall under construction on Route 903 at Bear Creek Lakes, Penn Forest Township. Developer Patty Westbrock of Jim Thorpe says the building will house five businesses, including a grocery store with a food court.

Nazareth Area High School students finally got to try lunch prepared at the school during the grand opening of the food court Wednesday. Contractors working on a $17.5 million expansion and renovation of the school finished the cafeteria kitchen two months behind schedule on Feb. 5. Previously, students grumbled about being served mostly cold sandwiches and lukewarm hamburgers and burritos shipped over from the middle school cafeteria in Upper Nazareth...

— The Corbett administration has inked a five-year deal with a central Pennsylvania-based grocery store chain for the naming rights to part of the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg. Weis Markets Inc. of Sunbury, Northumberland County, will pay the state $750,000 over the next five years to have its name on the side of the large exposition hall in the sprawling complex on the edge of downtown Harrisburg. "This is a good example of a public-private partnership that will help us more efficiently," said Nicole Bucher, a spokeswoman for the state Agriculture Department, which oversees the complex.

Veggies are hot. So hot they'll take "center stage" at Bethlehem VegFest, a major new food and street festival noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 10. Located on the new South Bethlehem Greenway, the event will give participants the knowledge to make veggies into show-stopping, "center plate" attractions at family meals. A vibrant Summer Tomato, Corn and Goat Cheese Salad, a sweet-hot Watermelon Salsa and a trio of heirloom tomato desserts (panna cotta, sweet focaccia and gelato) are just a hint of what's on the menu during the afternoon of cooking demos and tastings.

Experience new dishes made with a cornucopia of vegetables — artichokes and arugula to wild mushrooms and zucchini — during Bethlehem's first VegFest Foods Week Sunday through Sept. 10. Ten Bethlehem restaurants and one in Trexlertown are offering select, fixed-price, vegetarian meals. In addition, the Honey Underground in Hereford, Balasia's weekend supper club, will participate on Sept. 9 and 10. The event offers a preview of the vegetarian dishes the restaurants will serve at the food court of the first-ever Bethlehem VegFest noon-5 p.m. Sept.

Check out the goods at the 2011 Spring Home Show inside and outside Stabler Arena and Rauch Fieldhouse on Lehigh University's Murray H. Goodman Campus in Bethlehem. Presented by the Lehigh Valley Builders Association, the largest and most diverse home show in the Lehigh Valley has more than 250 exhibitors — builders, heating and air conditioning professionals, kitchen renovators, landscape designers, furniture restorers, remodelers, painters, pool manufacturers and almost anything else for the home you can think of. At 1 p.m. Sunday, Creative Tile Imports will demonstrate how to use stainless grout.

Hershey's Chocolate World, epicenter of the "Sweetest Place on Earth," is morphing into even more of a treat for chocolate fans with the addition of two new experiences this month. The first, Create Your Own Candy Bar, is the closest visitors can get to a bona fide chocolate factory experience. They select add-ins to flavor their personal chocolate bar, design its wrapper and trigger production equipment to start. Then they can follow their bar from its start as melted chocolate to the moments when it emerges from a cooling tunnel and is wrapped.

Nursing students Jennifer Miller (left) and Erica Biege take a break in the recently landscaped outdoor courtyard at Lehigh Valley Hospital, 17th and Chew streets, Allentown. The garden is part of a $5.3 million renovation project at the site that included a new lobby, drive-up entrance, food court, diagnostic care center and center for healthy aging. The project will wrap up with a new entrance to the emergency room and canopy, recently approved by city zoners.

Whet your appetite, Bethlehem. The Campus Food Court is preparing a feast for your tummy ... and your eyes. In honor of the city's 250th anniversary, the South Side restaurant will construct a 600-foot Italian sub, which will be cut into 3,000 pieces and given away Sunday afternoon. The sandwich may be the largest of its kind, according to Food Court Manager John Luca. "We were trying to go for a record, but sandwiches aren't listed in the Guinness Book because there are so many variations," Luca said.

So, you're wondering whether to check out the casino? I offered a report last week on my tour of the empty Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem as they were preparing to open. But as impressive as that was, I knew the place would look different filled with people and noise. Plus, I wanted to see how they handled the traffic of opening day. So I headed over there early Friday afternoon for a hands-on consumer experience. My trip in, from I-78 west and Route 412, was a breeze, although the seven-story parking deck was full.